Big Loop

With Christmas and the feasting that goes with it over I felt like it was time to burn off some calories. I have had a long loop in mind for a while, but never seem to be in the mood to go that far by myself. Today I decided to tackle it. From Lyons over Mt. Elizabeth to Big Hill Rd. to Columbia and Italian Bar back. Turned out to be 46.5 miles and 6433ft of gain in about six and a half hours. All on a single speed. For the first time in recent memory I could not pedal all the way up my driveway. The only other time I had to walk was near the tower on Mt. Elizabeth when the snow was just to much. Awesome weather and big hills made it a great day. Wish you could have been there Bobby.

Overtrousers?

Almost the whole month of November realy sucked. Fortunatley December is working out much better. Its hard to find people to ride with when the weather is less than pleasant. Luckily for me I know a guy that is just as stupid as I am. Sean and I got a couple rides in on days when most people wouldn't even leave their house. Their loss! We rode the Olmstead loop on Saturday. That may the wettest ride I have ever done. The creek crossing was almost up to our waist. Today we knocked out 2hrs at Tuttle town. Both rides there wasn't another rider in sight.

The single speed seems to be the perfect weapon for the grit and grime of winter. Its impossible to have mud wreck your shifting or gum up your cables. I can't imagine a better setup for winter; hard tail (no pivots no maintenance), 29er (smooth speed),Single speed (just needs chain lube).

My wife was nice enough to give me an early Christmas present. The day before we rode Olmstead she looked at the forecast and decided that if I was going to be dumb I might as well be prepared. She bought me a pair of Endura Venturi E vent overtrousers. Its only been two rides but those have to be the coolest piece of bike gear I own. There is nothing like riding in a downpour with mud so deep it swallows 29 inch wheels to get back to the truck and have your legs and shorts clean and dry underneath. So far I have not been sweaty or cold in them they breathe so well you forget they are there. Thank you wifey. Now if I could just get that jacket to come off backorder.

Killer week

I almost forgot to mention taking my boys to Lyons. They have been helping me do trail work all summer but most of the trails are to hard for them to ride. Gage was begging to ride the Lyons gate trail ever sense we put in a log ride. He not only rode the trail but cleaned the log ride. You can see from the look on his face that he hated the whole thing.

Lava rocks are harder than HULK hide
Nathan still having fun


Sean still having fun

Bobby railing the snow

Sean popping out of the tunnel on Tunnel Trail(DUH!)

This last week I have been on some great rides. I started out with the most painful single speed ride yet. Sean and I knocked out 30 miles in Auburn with 4000 ft. of gain on Manzanita, Forrest hill divide, Tunnel, Confluence, and Stagecoach trails. I could barely stand up when we got back to the truck. It did make me feel better when I found out that Sean was hurting for a couple days as well.

Tuesday I tackled CHS up in Cold Springs before work. I did this trail the week before and it only took three hours, but this time we had snow. I drug Bobby and Nathan along for what turned out to be a lot of fun. We had to push a lot because riding up hill in snow is kind of like riding up a sand dune. We were pleasantly surprised coming back down when the traction was actually perfect. Two inches of snow on top of frozen dirt makes for some killer speed. Who knew?

Today I decided to get even with Sean for the suffer fest in Auburn with some of my own nastiness. We started with a grueling climb up to the rockiest trail I know of (The N*GG*R Head trail) or Pin Ball if your sensitive. After that bit of stress we hit up trail 20. I think Sean and Nathan (pore sucker answered my text) were still having fun at that point. We had a relaxing bit of recovery on the rail road grade before a killer descent to the river on some home made trail that unfortunately requires 30min of pushing to get out of. There was some name calling and more than a couple F bombs thrown my way. After a couple free beers I think they quit hating me.

Singlespeed = Pain

I think I am finally comfortable with log rides
I actually look for them now

I did make Sean go first though

It required a little more speed than he thought

I got my initiation into the world of single speeds last Saturday. Sean and I drove up to The Pioneer trail, outside of Grass Valley. From what we hear the trail goes all the way to Reno. We decided to ride up 15 miles and turn around. This is actually a perfect trail to try SS on because most of the climb is pretty mellow, but it never seems to end. We found a log ride near the end and took turns riding it after a little repair to the ramps. After a couple minutes my legs started to ache in a new and somewhat disturbing way. We high tailed it back to the truck before my legs gave out. By the time I changed, the front of both legs felt like someone was ripping the muscle apart. I have dealt with brutal cramps before, this was something different. Sean was very encouraging when he told me it will only hurt worse later. Fortunately it only lasted about 30 min. I'm not sure why a SS is so fun, but its pretty much the only bike I'm riding now. Maybe I do like suffering?

First rain ride

home made mud deflector(old tube)
Not much can stop the mud on the lower half

After the ride we were both a little muddy, with me it was mostly my back.

I was supposed to work Sunday but the call of the first rain was to much to resist. Stoker and I had plans to Ride Avalanche but we got a little more than scattered showers. We decided to stay off the sketchy rocks and play in the mud. We shuttled to the top of chair 8 to save some time. I added a down tube fender and a home made mud deflector and both work great. All the trails were packed down and lots of fun.

To Hot!

Me(bike smasher), Bobby(Loafer), Nathan(new guy), Aaron(Mavic), Sean(mountianbike adict), Arch(Mavic), Brad(Cambria)
For the last two days I had the privilege of guiding some bike industry types around my local stomping grounds. Sean brought some of his friends up on their way home from Interbike. We hit up the Arnold Rim trail yesterday. All of the climbs seemed to be harder than normal. I think a lot of this was due to the start time of 11:00. It just got hotter and hotter. Fortunately we had a great group of guys and were able to talk enough crap to distract ourselves up the hills.
Today we started out at 9:00 but I don't think we missed any of the heat (100 degrees by the end). We headed straight for Crandel Peak on the easiest route I could think of. It didn't matter the climb in the sun still took its tole. After showing them the amazing view from the old fire look out we finally got to rail some single track. From there it was a mix of trail and fire road all the way to Deer creek. I even conned them into doing some trail work. As exhausting as the day was everyone said they would come back.
I should also note that Brad was the only one to pedal all the way back up the hill to my house. The guy is a beer drinking/hill climbing machine. I'm pretty sure Arch and Aaron are trying to keep Sierra Nevada in the green. Next time I think I'll need a beer drop half way if I want to entice them to do more miles.
Only one flat and no major mechanicals or injuries. Good day!

6 hour Super D

This was the road to bypass the first lift
The course was fun but rocky

As you can see, the lifts were the weak link. On top of the limited bike rack, they could only load about a quarter of the chairs at a time. You had to wait for them to cycle around to designated chairs for riders.

Sean almost lapped me the second time right here. I hate flats!

I raced the six hour Super D at Kirkwood with a couple friends today. The format was pretty simple take the chairlift up ride down for six hours. Whoever had the most laps wins. There was a slight twist however, the chairlifts and the lines are really slow. If you were a strong rider you could beat someone riding the first chair to the base of the second. In fact all the fast guys pedaled the first lap and gained at least a half a lap on those of us in the lift lines. The top riders never rode the lower lift at all.
The race surprised us with plenty of tight technical single track. There was a little double track, but very minimal. I think the ideal set up for me would have been a five inch bike with full downhill tires. My fire bird was awesome but didn't really encourage me to climb from the bottom. My tire setup is were things went south for me and many others. I have been running Maxxis UST tires at thirty pounds for quite a while now with almost no flats. Unfortunately the rocks at Kirkwood are very sharp and plentiful. On the third lap I punched a hole right through the tread. I had to walk down to the mid mountain were the awesome lift staff gave me a tube. I got back on the lift and tried again. I almost made back to the mid mountain before I blew a hole in the back tire. I decided to walk all the way down and get my own tube and tools, that I never should have rode without in the first place. All things repaired I headed up again. After my "fourth" lap Sean and I decided to bail. Hiking down the mountain twice and a lack of backup tubes was enough that I had no chance of even running a decent race.
Over all I think it was a great race. I would love to do it again, with a little more preparation. Everyone was low key and having fun.

Elwell

Top of Packer. You can barely see the fire lookout on the butte behind us. Brandon is actually four months along.
Truffle Shuffle!

If the views don't make you forget the hike a bikes the downhill sure will. Brandon is already forgetting that he is pushing.

Right now he is having a hard time forgetting. The up side is that he is a hundred yards from downhill the rest of the day.

We met up with a group of people I know and finished our adventure with them. This is John about thirty seconds away from an endo.

Top of Elwell looking back.

I wanted to get up to the Downieville area before summer ended. I figured Labor day might be my last chance. I thought I was going solo at first but Brandon pulled in some favors and made the trek with me. My wife was nice enough to shuttle us to the top. Unfortunately for Brandon I wasn't interested in the "normal" Downieville run. I had read about the Mt. Elwell trail a couple times but I could never pull it off. We rode the "perfect cycling trail" from Packer to the base of Elwell. I don't know anyone that could climb to the top, so of course we walked the last mile. We were rewarded with spectacular views in every direction and burly downhills long enough to make my brakes steam at the creek crossings. Bitchen ride!

Month off

Sean and I got even with the South Yuba Trail for all the scars on my legs the last time I was there. By the way, this trail is a geographical anomaly (up hill both ways).
Dave, Katie and Bobby on the new section of PCP


We climbed from the store, so the next 45 min. were even sweeter.

The only thing that could screw up my sleeping cycle worse than a month off was returning to work. 80 hours starting at night made for some chaotic sleep scheduling.
After riding in Bend for five glorious days I returned home to knock out some miles in my back yard. Then I went to Tahoe for a couple days. After riding around up there I spent a week cranking out some big mileage on the forest roads around my house.

PCP Dome?

Khris lovin the PCP
Khris made it out of the new section

George makes it out too


Sunday a couple of the Trogs and I went up the hill for some DH action. They kept talking about a new black diamond section on the PCP trail. I couldn't resist, so we all piled into the Kings minivan and shuttled ourselves up to the top. We took a run down Willow just to get warmed up, then grunted all the way to the top of PCP. A little ways down we turned right onto the new diamond run. It was awesome. Its almost like putting the best parts of Dome at the top of PCP. Super technical slow granite drops. Way different from Bend. It was the perfect section to get me back into the swing of things for our local trails. Great ride guys, Thanks.

Last day in Bend

14miles of downhill flow ahead
It would be hard to find better views, unless you took us out of the photo

On the morning before we had to leave Bend, Sean and I talked my super understanding wife into shuttling us back up to Mt. Bachelor. We wanted to ride some of the trails we missed on our guided tour. We started out a couple miles higher than before, at Dutchman's Flat. The climb up Flagline wasn't too bad. The descent starting at Happy Valley and ending on the Mrazek trail in Shelvin Park tops every other downhill run I have done, even Downieville. It was the smoothest flowiest trail I have ever seen, and it felt like it would never end.
After five days of riding the Niner I was amazed that I hadn't broke anything. I might actually be learning how to be easier on bike parts, maybe.

Bent on Bend

Dee Wright observatory, No bikes just cool
Gage lovin the McKenzie


Ashton Lovin his first real single track with Mom running sweep

Hurry up and get the picture before the mosquitoes get us

Ashton made it. He still wanted more. Moms happy there's no crying

The only picture I took on the Bachelor ride. I couldn't bring myself to stop the flow.

Gage pedaling as fast as he can.

I think he needs a better bike

Lovin it at Phil's

Not lovin it at Phil's. A little dirt sample builds charactor.

Both kids were bleeding a little.

I've been having trouble taking pictures while I'm here in Bend OR. It's hard to justify stopping the flow of these amazing trails. Sean and I explored 25 miles out of Phil's trailhead the other night. We were the last people out of the parking lot at 9:45. Its really easy to get lost in the dark, even when the trails are marked.
Tuesday morning I took the family to the bottom of McKenzie river trail for a couple miles of flow. I think my youngest son finally got bit by the mountain bike bug. He was all grins and singing the whole time. My oldest was riding harder and faster than ever before.
Wednesday we re-enlisted the boys at Cog Wild for a guided tour from Mt Bachelor to Bend. The guys were awesome. They provided us with lunch and miles of single track all the way back to town. There was a group of nine and I think every one of us had had enough. The guides were more than willing to take us on more but I'm not sure we could have done it. Again I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Cog Wild if you're ever in Bend.
Thursday played out pretty mellow riding wise. Spent most the day goofing off with the family and then we decided to get some trail time in. I took them all up to Phil's for a short lap. This place is amazing, you can ride for as short or as long as you like. Or as hard or a easy as you like. We did about 4 miles. I finally got the courage to ride some logs while we were out there messing around. Anyone that knows me understands what a big deal this is(check the vid). Over all I'd have to say Bend has some of the most beginner friendly trails anywhere, but it never leaves the more advanced rider wanting.

Bend is Bitchin

Good company amazing trail
Mark finds out why Pivots get so much hype

Even the roadies were all smiles

They should call it the log bridge trail, I lost count how many of these we crossed

It was hard not to stop and take pictures of all the scenery

Amy and Sean at Blue pool. Swimming was very tempting

Dunking your helmet in the river was manditory

Fortunately for Amy this was the end of the lava

I'm in Bend for the week checking out some amazing singletrack. This might be better than Moab. Ill let you know later in the week.
After too early a start we met the guys over at Cog wild for a shuttled ride on the McKenzie river trail. Any one who is even close to here owes it to themselves to ride that trail. Definitely needs to be on every mountain bikers "Bucket list". We had a couple roadies with us today on there first real mountain bike ride. I think the lava section at the top was a bit much but in the end every one had a great ride. 27 miles of perfect single track. No broken bike parts or body parts. $40 well spent.